The New IQism: Intelligence, ‘Ability’ and the Rationing of Education

Abstract

Bad blood, feeble-mindedness, genetic inferiority, eugenics … these terms are associated with another age: they are the discredited and disgraced language of a pseudo- scientific tradition that wrought incredible injustice during the 20th century and are widely viewed with contempt. Such terms are no longer used but, we will argue, the same underlying approaches continue to exert a powerful influence on the policy and practice of contemporary education. This is the new IQism where talk of ‘ability’ replaces (and encodes) previous talk of intelligence.